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Recidivism the bugaboo of treatment
Sunday, September 05, 1999 By Jack Kelly, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
There are many promising treatment programs for troubled young people. But their value is limited if, after completing them, children return home and fall back into old patterns.
After-care programs are few and far between in the United States, but Allegheny County has one of the best, say experts in Washington, D.C.; Harrisburg; and at the Pittsburgh-based National Center for Juvenile Justice.
Every juvenile sent by a judge to a residential facility must complete a three-month after-care program at Allegheny Academy, a private facility, or the county-run Community Intensive Supervision Project.
Both started as alternatives to residential programs, and they still are. But three years ago, authorities decided that the close supervision and instruction they offer could serve as a bridge to ease the transition for juveniles leaving residential facilities and returning to their neighborhoods.
"If you can get a kid on the right track in the first 30 to 90 days, you have a much better chance of success," said Jim Rieland, director of court services.
Juveniles are picked up after school and taken to Allegheny Academy or to one of four intensive supervision centers, where they receive counseling, academic help if they are struggling in school, instruction in industrial trades and the chance to play competitive sports.
"The first thing we do is feed them," said Joe Daugerdas, executive director of Allegheny Academy. "Many don't get decent meals at home."
The young people are taken home around 9 p.m., where they are expected to stay until they leave for school the next morning. They often receive curfew calls four or five times a night.
On average, 7 percent of Allegheny Academy's students -- most of whom have been sentenced to intensive supervision in lieu of a residential program -- are arrested while attending the academy. The comparable recidivism rate among juveniles taking part only in the after-care program is 3 percent. Allegheny County does not keep track of recidivism after juveniles complete these programs.
Rieland said the recidivism rate for the county intensive supervision program in 1998 also was 7 percent. There was no measurable difference between recidivism among juveniles in after-care and those who had been sent to intensive supervision in lieu of a residential program.
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